badgley



(No Model.)

S. P. BADGLEY. PHOTOGRAPHIG BAGKGROUND CARRIER. No. 596,312.

Patented Dec. 28, 1897.

0% lw R, i mm W N K m: scams warms co. mom-umq, \VASHWGYCN, n. c

Unrrnn Starts lRA rnNr @rmcn.

SAMUEL F. BADGLEY, OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, ASSIGNOR TO THE BADGLEY do HOERTER COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

PHQTGGRAPHlC fEAfEf-f iQUUNU CARRHER.

fiPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent -50. 596,312, dated December 28, 1897'. Application filed Ju1y3,189'7. Serial No; 643,362. (No model.)

To aZZ whom/it may concern.-

Be it known that l, SAMUEL F. BADGLEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Louisville, in the county of Jefferson and State of Kentucky, have invented new and useful Improvements in Photographic Backgrounds, of which the following is a specification.

Thisinvention relates to photographic backgrounds, and has for its object to provide a background with an improved floor-cloth attachment by means of which various different effects for full-length portraits can be obtained.

It has for its further object to improve the construction and arrangement of the background and its carrier, whereby the background may be employed for taking a large variety of different types or styles of photographs and whereby the shaded and light and the scenic effects maybe greatly increased and multiplied without increasing the size of the painted portion of the background.

To these ends my invention consists in the features and in the construction, combina tion, and arrangement of parts hereinafter described, and particularly pointed out in the claims following the description,reference bein g had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, wherein- Figure 1 is a front elevation of myiniproved device. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same,

and Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of a portion of the background-strip.

In carrying my invention into effect 1 pro Vide a carrier for the painted background constructed as follows:

Referring to the drawings, the numerals 1 indicate two uprights joined together at suitable intervals by cross-bars 2 and supported on feet 3, preferably mounted on casters for convenience in moving the device. Journaled in suitable bearings fixed to the opposite sides of the uprights, at or near the bottom of the latter, are rollers 4 and 5, and in the upper ends of the uprights is j ournaled a large guideroller 6.

The numeral? indicates the painted background, consisting of a strip of canvas or fabric of any suitable or preferred material and of any desired length. The opposite ends of the strips are wound about and attached to the rollers f and 5, and between said rollers the strip passes over and is guided by the guide-roller (3. The strip 7 is painted or otherwise coated to represent various different effects of light and shade and scenic effects, as hereinafter described, and in order to bring any portion of the strip into operative position I provide the following means: Fixed on one end of each of the rollers 4 5 are sprocketwheels 8, and journaled in bearings attached to the carrier-frame above the sprocketwheels are two crank-shafts 9, on which latter are fixed sprocket-wheels 10. Chains 11 connect the sprocket-wheels 8 and 10. Byturning either one of the crankshafts 9 the strip 7 will be wound off either the roller4 or 5 and onto the other roller to bring the desired portion of the strip into View. By means of the sprocket wheels and chains arranged in the manner shown lam enabled to place the rollers 4 5 very low on the carrier, and consequently close to the floor.

It will be noted that I have shown the roller 4 arranged somewhat below the roller 5, and the object of such arrangement is twofold. In the first place, by arranging the rollers at different levels they are enabled to accommodate a greater bulk or roll of the strip than they would be able to do if arranged side by side in proximity thereto, and in the second place the roller 4 is brought close to the floorcloth used for taking full-length portraits.

.l'ournaled in the carrier-frame beneath the roller 4; is a spring-roller 12, constructed and operating in the same manner as the ordinary and well-known spring curtain-roller. Vound upon said spring-roller is a floor-cloth 13, which in practice is painted to produce a va riety of contrasting effects corresponding to or adapted to form a continuation of similar effects painted on the strip 7 and especially designed for forming the backgrounds of full length portraits. In order to conceal the division between the floor-cloth and the back ground-strip, I attach to the latter at the bottom or lower edge of each painted section intended for full-length portraits a strip 14-, of flexible fabric, which is adapted at its lower free end to fall over and upon the floor-cloth 13. Each strip 1 f is painted to harmonize with the painted section to which it is attached and with a corresponding section of the floor-cloth, so that when one of the sections of the background-strip is broughtinto operative position and a corresponding section of the floor-cloth is rolled off from the spring-roller the strip lat and the floor-cloth will form a continuation of the painted background-strip in such manner that they will exhibit the appearance in the finished picture of one unbroken and homogeneous view or background. By this means also a number of full length backgrounds and floorcloths of different scenic or shade effects may be provided in the same device and none of which will exhibit in the finished picture the line between the background-strip and the floor-cloth.

For bust portraits no floor-cloth is necessary, and hence the roller 5 need not be arranged quite as low or close to the floor as the roller 4. For making bust portraits the strip 7 is painted or shaded to give side and top and bottom effects, as shown in Fig. 3, where 7 indicates the strip provided with a painted section 15, which is shaded on one side, and with a painted section 16, shaded at top or bottom. By arranging the rollers and background-strip in the manner shown and described I am enabled to make the two sections 15 and 1(5 serve as four different backgrounds in the following manner: By operating the carrier to bring the sect-ion 15 into view on one side of the frame the background will present the shaded or graded effect for side lighting-as, for example, for left lighting. Then by turning the rollers in the proper direction the section 15 is carried up and over onto the other side of the frame or carrier, when by reversing or turning around the latter the section 15 will nowpresent the shaded or graded effect for right lighting. So, also, the section 16 may be manipulated to give different top and bottom effects, and various other changes that will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art may be obtained.

Arranged on the ends of the crank-shafts 9 are ratchet-wheels 17, which are engaged by pawls 18, pivoted to the frame 1. After one of the crank-shafts has been rotated to bring the desired background into position the pawl is thrown into engagement with the ratehet-whee1 011 the other crank-shaft and by continuing the windin g operation the strip is stretched taut.

By means of my invention I am enabled to provide a large number of backgrounds suitable for both full-length and bust portraits and of a great variety of shaded and scenic effects, with a painted background of fewer painted sections and of less length than has heretofore been possible, enabling the operator to have a large number and variety of backgrounds at a less cost and taking up less space than those heretofore in use.

I have referred herein to the background strip as having painted sections, but I wish it to be understood that I include in this term every known means for producing on the background the shaded or scenic eilects.

Having described my invention, what I claim is 1. I11 a photographic background, the combination with a frame or carrier and rollers mounted thereon, of a flexible backgroundstrip wound on said rollers and provided with a plurality of sections having contrasted shaded or scenic effects, a floor-cloth connected at one end with the lower portion of said frame or carrier and having a plurality of sections corresponding to the sections on said strip, and a plurality of strips each attached at its upper end to the lower edge of one of the sections on the background-strip and arranged to lie at its free edge on said floor-cloth, substantially as described.

2. In a photographic background, the combination with a frame or carrier having rollers 4 5 journaled in its lower end and a guideroller 6 inits upper end, a flexible backgroundstrip 7 wound on the rollers 4 5 and passed over the roller 6, a spring-roller 12 journaled in the frame below the roller 4-, a floor-cloth 13 wound upon said spring-roller, and a plurality of strips 1-l attached at their upper edges at intervals to said background-strip and adapted to lie at their free edges on said floor-cloth, and means for rotating the rollers I 5, substantially as described.

3. In a photographic background, the combination with a frame or carrier of rollers 4t 5 journaled on the opposite sides and lower end of said frame and carrying sprocket-wheels, sprocket-wheels 10 mounted on crank-shafts 9 j ournaled in the frame above the rollers at 5, chains connecting said sprocket wheels, a guide-roller (S journaled in the upper end of the frame, a flexible background strip 7 wound on the rollers 1 5 and passed over the roller 6, a spring-roller12 journaled in the frame below the roller 4-, a floor-cloth 13 wound on said spring-roller, and a plurality of strips 14 attached at their upper edges at intervals to the background-strip and adapted to lie at their free edges on said floor-cloth, substantially as described.

I11 testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

SAMUEL F. BADGLEY.

YVi tnesses:

Jo A. IIOERTER, S. S. Gnrnrrrn, 

